Three things have caused D-PES 2016 exhibitor list to transform into a local southwest China sign expo

1st change: D-PES 2014 was a major international sign China expo. Probably 60% to 80% of the attendees at D-PES also attended the Canon fair area (Pazhou) across the street, where Sign China 2014 co-located with LED China 2014 was the second biggest signage expo in China (APPPEXPO is slightly larger, especially for wide-format inkjet; LED is larger for dynamic digital signage).

But in 2015, Sign China 2015 + co-located LED China 2015 both abandoned Guangzhou and moved to Shanghai, and to the autumn. So now there was no giant expo across the street from D-PES anymore.

D-PES was held in a huge complex a few minutes away from the city's hotel area.

2nd change: APPPEXPO used to be in July. All of a sudden in 2015 they switched dates to March. But at least it was close enough to D-PES 2015 end date that you could fly to China and attend D-PES first and then APPPEXPO two days later. But, for 2016, D-PES decided to move several weeks earlier. So now you can no longer use one plane ticket to attend both.

3rd change: D-PES recently decided to become a local traveling expo around China, in different Chinese cities. So instead of one giant expo in Guangzhou, the new 2016 system will be lots of local expos in different parts of China.

Another major change in 2015 was that 90% of the inkjet media and substrates manufacturers did not exhibit at D-PES any more; instead dozens of LED manufacturers exhibited. So D-PES 2015 was mostly CNC routers, CO2 laser engravers, and LED, plus local manufacturers of printers.

As a result of all these changes in D-PES 2016, we will not be attending the 2016 Sign China 2016 exhibitor list in Guangzhou. It is simply too expensive to fly to Guangzhou.

D-PES is a good opportunity to inspect lots of printer models from several manufacturers. You can also learn about the way Chinese companies interact with other companies to market their printer models.

FLAAR was the first international wide-format printer research institute to attend the first D-PES 2010. Held in Dongguan, it was a split away from Sign China in Guangzhou.

FLAAR attended every single D-PES, each and every year 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. One reason we attended is that the exhibit organizers were hospitable, worked hard, and had their expo precisely within the same week as the giant, huge, immense printer and LED expo across the street in Guangzhou. By the third year of D-PES, they left Dongguan and moved across the street from the Canon fair area (which is along the river).

Because the two expos were the same week, we could easily attend both expos, stay in the same hotel, and not have to fly back-and-forth to China (two expos for the price of one flight).

Although D-PES is a local expo, the ground transportation was professionally organized. The bus in the photo went back and forth from D-PES in Dongguan, to the other trade show in Guangzhou.

But for 2016 everything is changed in Guangzhou

No more expo across the street, and no more any other expo elsewhere in China the same week. Plus the staff of D-PES has changed (the owners changed already several years ago). The new focus for them is to survive by expanding to other Chinese cities, to be a nice local expo for Chinese print shops and Chinese attendees in each of the many cities around China.

Leaf Li, one of the trade show's assistants for international visitors, providing information to part of FLAAR staff.

The D-PES 2016 exhibitor list will still include printer manufacturers whose factories are either in Guangzhou, Dongguan or Shenzhen, but we need to see, experience, and learn about all the other brands. So it is too expensive to fly to Guangzhou in 2016.

We skipped China Sign + LED China in 2015 for the same reason: there was no longer D-PES across the street any more. And whatever printer brands were at China Sign in the autumn were already at APPPEXPO in March.

Because in some cases it is easier to identify the companies by their logos, or not all Chinese companies have their name in Western writing, the organizers cleverly designed a logotype-based map.

Same with the nice printer expos in Beijing: they are local and regional. This means that the presidents and CEOs of the printer brands are not present in the booth (or if so, only for one day).

Being a local expo also means that the factory is not the exhibitor: instead, the local Chinese distributor for the local China market has the booth.

However for local Chinese sign shop owners, and for people in the southern part of China, D-PES will be a nice local expo. In the future, in another year, if D-PES 2017 or D-PES 2018 evolves into returning to be a major world-level international expo (which means all brands of inks, media, substrates in addition to just CNC routers and LED), then we look forward to looking at the D-PES exhibitor list for 2017 or a future year.

Dr. Hellmuth interacting with friendly local staff at one of the exhibiting booths.

Most recently updated November 24, 2015, Previously updated January 16, 2015, February 27, 2013. First posted January 3, 2012 (FLAAR was the first international resource to learn about and write about D-PES).

Use of this website signifies your agreement to the Terms of Use. Any problem with this site please report it to [email protected], or if you note any error, omission, or have a different opinion on a review, please contact the editor